Harris/Apperson/Johnson/Shelton

I am sitting in my mother-in-law's kitchen this morning.  We had identified everyone in the below photo several years ago.  However, I wanted to take a few minutes to ask her if she remembered anything more about any of these people.  The photo was taken in the coal fields of WV during the heyday of that area of our state.

 This photo was taken at a Harris reunion that was held at Coney Island in Welch, WV 7 September, 1930.  Below is a scan and list that identifies all of the people in the photo.  The patriarch and wife in this photo are Samuel Sterling Harris and wife Frances Louise (Lou) Woodson.  Everyone else (except  for one gal who was a date and never married into the family) are children or grandchildren or in-laws of the four children of Samuel Sterling and his first wife or of Samuel Sterling and Lou.

Oh, I almost forgot Everett!  Everett is hiding in the tree behind the group....you can just barely see him just behind #41 and #42.  His head is barely on either side of the tree branch.  I would never have known his being in the photo if my Mother-in-law had not shown me.  Everett and Sue (my mother-in-law) were close to each other and remained in touch for most of their years after children were raised and left home.  Everett did yDNA testing for me before he died.  So I have a good bit of information about his connections from the yDNA that I am willing to share if someone has interest.

Here are Sue's stories:

Samuel Sterling Harris was her grandpa.  Sue remembered that when she got old enough to know him, he was retired and sat on the porch all day long....finally he was bedfast and grandma Lou waited on him six years in bed.  He complained the whole time.  He died 11 Feb 1934 in Davey, WV (McDowell County).

Frances Louise Woodson Harris was wife of Samuel Sterling (often called S.S.)....Sue said that she was a saint. She raised the four children of S.S. and his first wife.  She was only about 16 when the first wife died.  She had come into the house to help out when his first wife got sick.   And then she and her husband had

Uncle Pitt was the oldest son of the first marriage and he was married to Isabelle....Sue called her Aunt Toad.

Louise Harris McCoy was partly raised by Lou after her mother died.  Louise was back and forth between the home of Grandma Lou and Louise's father's home.

Audrey Anna Harris was the daughter of Uncle Howard.  Her father is right behind her in the photo.

Uncle Pete never married and lived at Davey and took care of grandma and grandpa until he died.  He died in Davey.  He worked at Twin Branch in the coal mine.  He was son of Lou and SS.

? Wolfe was married to Uncle Pitt's daughter. Lenora.  They lived in Portsmouth, Ohio.  He was a traveling salesman.  Sue calle him Wolfey.

Pete Harris.....Lou called him Paul.  He lived in Davey.  When grandma and grandpa died, Aunt Edna moved into the old home place and took care of Pete.  He never married.

Earl Shufflebarger was the son of Aunt Molly.  Sue does not remember her having a husband.  Aunt Molly lived in Princeton for a while.  She moved to Norfolk.  She and  Aunt Sis (Nora) were close as they were full sisters.  The two of them are standing together in the photo.


John Harris was the youngest of the four children born to Samuel Sterling Harris and his first wife, E.M. Harris.  Lou did not raise him as he moved in with his mother's people.  Later he "came home"...but he was not raised by Lou.

Uncle John's wife was Aunt Ada.  Sue was named after her.  Sue visited Aunt Ada in McComas WV after she was married.  Sue took her mother to visit and they would have lunch and visit and drive back home.  Aunt Ada told Sue to pick out somethings that she wanted and Sue chose the following which are still in her household.

Elaine Hogan was Aunt Edna's daughter.  Aunt Edna came back and moved in with her parents.  She had divorced her husband early and was married a second time but never even lived with him.  So she moved in with her parents.  Aunt Edna worked in Welch in Bell's Department store.  She would take the bus to work from Davey.  The store was a dime store that was locally owned.

James (Jim Harris) sitting beside Elaine was the son of Uncle Pitt and Aunt Toad.   he had the exact same name as Sue's brother, James Warren Harris.  There other son was Randolph Harris.  He was at VPI when WWII broke out.  He and another man were sent out on a mission and were never heard from again.

Mary and Martha Walker were the twins that Sue always talked about  Their mother was Bertha Harris Walker and father Pearl Walker .  Sue is standing between the two twins.

Bob Hogan was Aunt Edna's son.

Gene Harris was the youngest son of Stella and Uncle Howard.  Stella is holding Gene in the photo. I have written it as Jean....

Ollie Mae Harris Tolbart Barnett kept in touch with Sue for many years.

Frances Walker was the last child of Aunt Bertha and Pearl Walker.

The lady who is labelled date never married into the family.



Much to my disappointment, she has very few photos of any of her family.  Sue explained that when her grandmother, Frances Louise Woodson Harris (Lou) died, Aunt Edna came down and took it over (Edna Hogan).  She was the second girl in the family.  Aunt Bertha was the oldest daughter.  Aunt Edna actually lived in the house for a long time and took care of Pete.  Then Pete owned the house....he was the youngest child of Lou ....Finally Pete sold the house to Aunt Edna's son, Jake....and eventually Jake sold it to Bob (also a son of Aunt Edna). This basically left the house totally empty.  Sue remembered that there would have been photos, but it is a mystery if they were thrown out or if any of the descendents of these people might have some.

Mattie Lee Johnson was the best dancer in Henry County

The lady who is being talked about in the below story is Mattie Lee Johnson Harris.  She was born 29 Oct 1891 in Henry, Virginia in the County of Franklin.  Her parents were Robert Henry and Francis Ann Shelton Johnson.  It is Mattie Lee who is said to have been voted the best dancer in Henry County, Virginia.

I asked Granny to tell me the story about what a wonderful dancer her mother was before her marriage to Pop Harris.  Barbara, Granny and I were having dinner at Guyan.  I had the following note in my data base about Granny Harris:

Granny Harris always told her children she was raised at the foot of the Blueridge Mountains.  Note that it is the town of Henry which is in Franklin County where she was born and raised

We had Sue for dinner one night and she told the story that Mattie Lee’s older brothers played musical instruments....and that Mattie Lee was voted the best dancer in Henry County.  The below is a census for this Johnson family in 1900.  Robert is the father, Frances his wife.  Then sons: Hamon, Everett, Luther, next Mattie Lee and last Albert H.  Mattie Lee would have been 9 at this time.  It is likely that it was these  brothers with whom she traveled in the next ten years.  The six older siblings had probably married and moved out of the home by 1900. The family is said to have lived in the Brown Hill Township during this enumeration.

In the below map you will see that Henry is very close to Henry County in the far south of Franklin County, so Mattie Lee may well have done much of her dancing in Henry County.  Also note that Brown Hill Mountain is near by...probably giving rise to the designation of Brown Hill Township 

Sue added to that story last night that the brothers (I am not clear which brothers played instruments, but I do remember that Everett was the name of one of them) played musical instruments and traveled to many locations where they were called upon to play for gatherings.  Mattie Lee would accompany them.  We think that Mattie Lee danced traditional mountain dances....perhaps like the clogging that we see now.  We also agreed that Mattie Lee named one of her sons for Everett who must have been one of the favorite brothers. 

Another day Sue added the following to this information.  There were no jobs in the Henry/Franklin County area in this time period.  Mattie Lee's brother left the area and moved to Twin Branch in the WV coal area.  It was on visits to Twin Branch to visit her brothers that Mattie Lee met her husband, Hewitt Samuel Harris.  Sue was born after their marriage and while they were living at Twin Branch.  Uncle Everett died before Sue ever knew him from the flu in year that there was the huge epidemic of flu.  Sue's brother who was named Everett lived a long life.  All of us knew Uncle Everett quite well from visits over the years.  This is the man who shared with me the Bible pages that I have treasured about the Harris family.

In spring/summer of 2017,  I heard from Patty Ament.  (e-mail address:  pament@kci.net) Patty is a granddaughter of Hamon Johnson.  Hamon was the brother of Mattie Lee Johnson Harris.  Patty shared with me a photo of her grandfather playing the fiddle and the handmade fiddle that Hamon made:

Patty gave me permission to share the photos on this blog post and to share the following information:

Here are some photos of Hamon Thomas Johnson’s fiddle, maybe one of the first ones he made.  It is hand carved, even the pegs.   It does not play.  A violinist friend of mine tried it with his own bow and got  a couple of squawks.  The wires cannot be tightened with the hand-whittled pegs.  But I love it and the photo of Gpa Hamon playing another more highly polished fiddle in front of his house in Beckley, WV.  I remember visiting this house once when I was about 12.  It is built into the side of a mountain  and he is standing in front of the basement.  He made his fiddles in the basement and also kept his store of whiskey (moonshine??) The main  floor starts with the white framing.  There were red and black raspberry bushes growing down the steep side of the mountain in front of the house, and, as I remember, cars had to drive part way up the driveway from the highway below into a sort of garage, then back the rest of the way up to his house.  They collected mountain honey, and every summer, Grandma Lourie Dean Stone Johnston mailed us quart jars of dark honey complete with long pieces of honeycomb.  No jars ever broke.  We gorged ourselves when they came.  It was heavenly.

You mentioned wondering which Hamon is my gfa.  He was Hamon Thomas Johnson, 1882-1958, s/o Robert Henry Johnson and Frances Shelton.  Frances Shelton was the d/o Giles Gerald Shelton and Nancy Spencer.  Giles and Nancy also had a son- Hamon David Shelton (1844-1918).  My Gpa Hamon may have been named after his mother’s brother. 

Yes, I have done the Ancestry DNA test.  According to it, I am 66% English, 16% Irish, bits of French, German and a smidge Iberian.  As I understand it, Johns(t)on is an Irish name and the Irish brought fiddling with them to America and it became Blue Grass Music.  When I visited Ireland a few years ago, I was struck by how much their pub music sounded like our country music.  Now I know why.  It all fits.